In this 4th episode of the I Lead Climate Action’s 30 days of activism we have Esther Muiru, an advisor on women land rights to the International Land Coalition who talks more on how women land rights intercept with democracy. Giving women access to land is like protecting our environment with a far and near reaching impact with great benefits. Due to the fact that women have limited access to these resources, it leads to huge time constraints that affect their economic gain and deny them of other rights such as education. Globally, it takes women and girls 200 million hours per day collecting water. This is part of the reason why there is no climate justice without gender justice. This interview seeks to answer many questions such as; what is the missing link on women’s rights to land?, how can we protect democracy through women’s land rights?, what are the solution multipliers and risk minimisers when women are given the access to own a land? And also, during the course of this interview, one of the questions that Esther pointed was that; “Why is it that when we talk about women we talk about micro-financing?” her proceeding response was, let's finance women in solutions that work about their solutions are not micro – it has global impacts.
Therefore, the world needs to invest in women, it should be beyond micro-finance. Women’s rights to land matter in solving the defining issue of our time. Hence, if there are no secured lands, there is no way we can deal with the impacts of the climate crisis. The missing link is that we are so much investing in policy but not investing in what to be done in implementing it. Rather, implementation of those policies matters. Land is a human right for everyone. Why is it that when it comes to the utilization of resources of Africa, we give more resources and access to other global companies not to benefit our people – that is where democracy should start according to Esther's response. Furthermore, we should have a blueprint of what we have is for the people and should be utilized by the people for the wellbeing of people of Africa. By the people; we talk about women who have survived big disasters. If women are insecure of their rights it definitely affects sustainability.
In her words, “in Africa, the piece of land where your house is located, that is where your heritage lies. Hence, we are destroying women’s orientation to their heritage yet it is our heritage for all of us” – this is an injustice. In this aspect, the International Land Coalition (ILC) did a report showing our land inequality is expanding. This research shows that over 60% of land for natural resources is being protected by the indigenous people (women). Less than 10% of the land available is owned by indigenous people – this tells how much unpaid labour women go through. We need to redefine land through investing in the solution that women are leading and advancing women’s land rights as a pre-condition. Esther shares the activities of ILC on how they have been helping to reclaim landscape and are members of different agencies and UN related activities to see if we can use land for social good. Also, reclaiming land serves as carbon sinkers that can help in tackling climate change.
Host: Oladosu Adenike (oladosuadenike32@gmail.com); founder of I Lead Climate Action Initiative, an ecofeminist, ecoreporter and an advocate for the restoration of Lake Chad.
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